With anti-Trump protests sweeping several US cities, activists
vowing to fight a Donald Trump presidency in the courts and Katy Perry calling for outright revolution, you could be forgiven for believing we are in the final death throes of liberal democracy. In a fit of unforgivable bigotry and stupidity,
American voters had snuffed out the shining beacon of liberal democracy.
This reading of events is not only wrong, it is dangerous.
Democracy is founded on the fundamental principle that
the voter is always right. Should you be on the losing side, either your
message was wrong or you failed to communicate it effectively. The electorate
is never to blame and both sides must accept the result.
A rejection of this basic principle is a rejection of the
very core of our democratic system, undermining the very concept of
liberal democracy that it purports to represent.
When conceding the election, Hillary Clinton made clear
that she fully bought into this principle: “I still believe in America and I
always will. And if you do, then we must accept this result and then look to
the future.” This follows a long history of the losing presidential candidate publicly
conceding the result and stands in marked contrast to Trump’s pre-election refusal
to commit to doing so should he have lost the election.
Barack Obama echoed these words when he stressed that this was the nature of democracy, that “the path this
country has taken has never been a straight line, we zig and zag. Sometimes we
move in ways that some people think is forward and others think is moving back
and that’s OK. [...] That’s the way politics works sometimes.”
Many parallels have been drawn to the recent EU
Referendum which resulted in Britain voting to leave the European Union. Perhaps just as enlightening, however, is the comparison provided by the
1997 UK General Election. In that election, the ruling Conservative Party faced
the end of 18 years in government with the loss of 178 MPs and the prospect of
electoral oblivion. John Major, the defeated Prime Minister, accepted that “we have suffered a very bad defeat, let us not pretend to ourselves that
it was anything other than what it was.” Politics, he noted, “is a rough old trade. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t. But
when you don’t, you just speak back, ask yourself why you didn’t, and put
yourself in a position to make sure that next time you get it right, and you do
win.” 13 years later the Conservatives were back in government and now command a
majority in the House of Commons.
Opponents of Trump must ask what
went wrong for them during this election and seek to learn what lessons they can
from the experience. There is already much opinion on the subject but it will
be up to them to face these lessons head on and to resist the
temptation to return to their political comfort zones.
Very few things in politics are
permanent and, as the experience of the Conservative Party shows, political
fortunes have been known to change radically within a relatively short period
of time.
In 1997 Major praised his colleagues for losing “with a dignity which made me proud of this party.” Clinton
showed similar poise when she congratulated Trump on his victory and hoped “he
will be a successful President for all Americans.” Once emotions have calmed
down, hopefully we will all able to do the same.
